


Play the Cards You're Dealt

by tainry



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 03:38:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5769826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tainry/pseuds/tainry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sideswipe observes. (Post-DotM)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Play the Cards You're Dealt

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the novel and the comic rather than the film. Mention of a character from Ghost in the Shell making this a slight crossover of sorts. XD

We are the walking wounded. One by one, Ratchet repairs our bodies. He is more silent than Bee. Another row of cold, dead shells joins those in shipping containers at the base. The last time I hear Ratchet speak for a long time is him telling me he’s glad Prowl didn’t live to see Sentinel betray us. 

Optimus’ time is even more in demand, but we know he’s taken up the guardianship of Lennox and his family. Bee has Sam and Carly. Ratchet visits Mikaela during his downtime. I don’t see any point in loving anyone. Not just because I lost Jolt and Mirage. We’re a dying race and we know it.

We help the humans rebuild Chicago. They design for their changing planet. We do the heavy lifting. When there are fires or floods, earthquakes or tornadoes, we do the heavy lifting. The work is the important thing. Only the work matters.

The humans call us Protectobots.

~>~

We are the walking wounded. Smokescreen and Silverstreak come to Earth. Optimus has to tell them Jazz is dead. They leave. Perceptor and Brawn come to Earth. Ratchet has to tell them Wheeljack is dead. Perceptor studies organic life, so they stay. The work is the important thing.

~>~

We are the walking wounded. Megatron and his followers – the few who are left – have gone. Except one. One Decepticon berserker who levels half of Beijing before Optimus and I can get there to put his lights out for good. Megatron’s highest commanders are all dead. We learn later that he takes a handful of starving hatchlings with him.

The war is really over. Megatron and his people rebuild a city on Cybertron, rebuild themselves. They are heavy machines. The work is the important thing. Only the work matters. 

~>~

On the day a human child looks up at me with glowing blue optics I realize things have changed. 

In Japan, a little girl, Kusanagi Motoko, is the only survivor of a plane crash. The Japanese build her a new body – silk and gold bridging the gaps between living flesh and living metal. She is the first but not the last. 

We’re a dying race, and we know it. But we live long enough to see this young race grow up. Bee says he can see Sam in the eyes of Sam’s great-great-great-granddaughter. 

~>~

One day, humans go to Cybertron. They go to help us rebuild, but not as Sentinel planned. Not as slaves. I go with them.

I would have known if he’d been killed. I should have known I’d meet him here. We stand amid the gleaming towers, red optics and blue. Our bodies are not much alike any more. He’s held his place in Megatron’s armies for millennia. 

“Hello, Sunstreaker,” I say.

He reaches for me. I let him. “Hello, brother.”


End file.
